On June 8, 2026, during the latest flare-up with Iran, Hataklit Pub in the Russian Compound of Jerusalem was open for business. Phones buzzed with breaking news alerts. Glasses clinked. David Bowie was playing.

At one table sat a few diplomats and EU staff, the sort of people who jokingly describe themselves as “pencil pushers” while keeping three cellphones within arm’s reach. At another, Jewish and Arab longtime friends shared gin and tonics and argued legal cases. A pair of journalists huddled over notes. A tourist checked her flight status. Two teenagers learning in yeshiva asked whether the pub would be broadcasting the World Cup. (It did.)

For a few hours, at least, the world could wait.

That, says Avi Goldberger, is precisely the point.

Goldberger, 50, is a married father of two daughters and one of the owners of three pubs in central Jerusalem. The best known is HaTaklit — Hebrew for “The Record” — which he runs with his business partners, Roy Bar-Tour and Haggai Sternheim.

Goldberger is also a ninth-generation Jerusalemite.

“My family has deep roots in the city,” he says.

People from outside Jerusalem, Goldberger says, often assume that tension between religious and secular communities defines life here. In his experience, that misses the larger picture.

“In reality, most of the time, that’s simply not the story,” he says. “I feel welcomed and loved in this city by people from all backgrounds, nationalities and faiths.”

He grew up during the latter years of a period........

© The Times of Israel